


these intrinsically woven bonds, stretching across generations

by reginamea



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, Gen, Missing Scene, Pre-SQ, Snow knows because Snow has always known, from 4x02
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-06
Updated: 2014-10-06
Packaged: 2018-02-20 03:10:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2412767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reginamea/pseuds/reginamea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Tell me. Tell me about your family." And Snow tells Elsa about her family from Mist Haven - the Enchanted Forest ... Elsa listens and marvels at the convoluted nature of this family. </p><p>- Elsa and Snow bond over tea at midnight and the unconventional family relations between Snow, Regina, Emma, and Henry</p>
            </blockquote>





	these intrinsically woven bonds, stretching across generations

**Author's Note:**

> un-beta'd

It is past midnight, hours later.

Inside, it is dark and warm and so very very quiet, finally. Most everyone has gone to bed. Hook has gone. Emma has fallen asleep on a bed hidden away behind an array of pale white curtains. With the help of this world's magic, blankets, and a tremendous amount of love, color has returned to her skin again and exhaustion has pulled her body into a deep state of dreamless slumber. The lithe figure of her son is curled into her side, hands fisted into the folds of her white shirt, and Elsa watches the tension in his knuckles reflect the wrinkled lines around his eyes that speak of the lingering worry for his mother even now in sleep.

"He's afraid he's gonna lose her when he's only just found her," a soft voice sounds behind her and Elsa, startled, spins around to find Snow White standing behind her, her baby boy swaddled against her chest and her eyes trained on her daughter and grandson.

Elsa can see, beyond the love and the fondness, the pain in the other woman's eyes, recognizes it for she herself has so much of it locked away within herself. She thinks of her sister, somewhere out there, alive at least, but apart from that Anna's fate remains unknown to her and Elsa feels, just for a moment, the crushing anxiety creeping back in, piercing her heart, just for an instance, until she reminds herself to breathe, just breathe, and the ice recedes again.

She turns to Snow instead, a welcome distraction, and asks, "what do you mean? He is her son, is he not?"

Snow shifts her gaze from her family to Elsa, her smile blindingly brilliant, and Elsa finds herself deeply moved by the sincerity of the gesture and yet somehow, at the same time, so utterly confused.

"Oh Elsa," Snow whispers, "there's so much about this family you have to understand," and Elsa vaguely remembers the boy's words about being down to one mother already. She did not understand at the time, but she wants to, now.

So she follows as Snow leads them into the kitchen area of their home, watches silently on as she moves surely about her tasks even with the baby, boiling water, pulling out cups. When she hands Elsa the tea, she gestures to the chairs gathered around a table and they sink into a comfortable silence for long moments. Elsa has questions, so many questions, but when she looks up, Snow is looking at her like she holds all the answers in the world. It hits Elsa, then, how much she is reminded of her mother in this very moment, so unexpectedly, and a quiet gasp escapes her lips as Snow takes her hand as though sensing her need for comfort.

"We will find your sister, Elsa," Snow promises, her voice quiet and full of passion. "This family never gives up on the people we love and if we can help you find your family? Then we will!"

Elsa's smile, in return, is watery, her face cracking as she feels her heart swelling like a river in her chest, unsure if the skin and bones of her body will hold it in, like a dam, or if it will break and burst if she spends another moment thinking of how much she misses her sister.

And so she says, "tell me. Tell me about your family."

And Snow does. Snow tells Elsa about her family from Mist Haven - the Enchanted Forest - about two girls who became family not by blood but by marriage, two girls who would wage a terrible war that span years and worlds and separated loved ones - a war that was foretold by destiny, their fates interwoven from even before the very beginning of time.

_Snow White_

_The Evil Queen_

_A Curse_

_The Savior_

_True Love's Kiss_

Elsa listens and marvels at the convoluted nature of this family, marvels at the woman in front of her speaking of her former step-mother as a friend, marvels at the little boy currently clinging to one of his mother's body while his other mother is somewhere across town refusing to see him, for now, for his own good, as she claims. Elsa does not understand the reasoning behind this distance between mother and son and she tells Snow as much.

"Where there is love, there should be no distance," she reasons. She has learned that much, at least, from losing Anna. A painful lesson indeed. Yet Snow's response is a deep sigh and a shake of her head.

"It's ... complicated," she says. "Regina, she's ... she knows what she's doing but ... it's complicated," and Snow's voice trails off as though there is more she wishes to says but unsure if she should or even how to proceed.

Once again, Elsa marvels at the intrinsically woven bonds within this family, stretching across generations in the most peculiar entanglements. She wonders why fate has chosen these people to carry such a heavy burden that, even when shared, seems all but unbearable.

Elsa waits for Snow to continue, yet Snow's eyes become distant, lost in what Elsa suspects are have-beens and might-have-beens and may-never-bes. Elsa waits, but she is not too patient now, too curious to know more about the Evil Queen who is not evil, the Savior who, like herself, cannot control her magic, and their son who seems both older and younger than his actual years.

"Then something must have happened between them," Elsa states, her words pulling Snow back to the present. "Why else would a parent keep away from a child if not for something that has happened between the parents?" And Elsa knows, she knows just from the slight creases forming around Snow's eyes that she has found the crux of the problem.

"Something is always happening between Emma and Regina," Snow replies, yet Elsa does not know what to make of the words nor of the tone. She does not know whether or not the words are even directed at her, for Snow's eyes are looking at her, but she appears unseeing, blind for just a moment to the outside world; lost to memories once more. Then she blinks, sets her tea cup down, sprawls her fingers across the form of her baby boy on her chest and hugs him tight. 

Elsa dares venture further.

"Is it because of the pirate?" she asks, because the man in the dark leather coat had hovered like a moth around Emma until she had fallen asleep, their hands entwined, his lips against her forehead, in her hair. For all she knows, he is her lover, has certainly acted that way. Maybe not like a father to Henry, but surely like a lover to Emma. She can only imagine what complications he would bring into the lives of any family, let alone this one in particular.

"That must be pretty complicated, I assume," Elsa offers and she watches as something akin to relief appears on Snow's face, relief and anguish and so much history that Elsa wonders how many layers she would have to scratch and scratch and scratch off to end up with the little girl on the runaway horse.

"It is," Snow nods. "But there's so much more," and Elsa has to admit that she is not surprised when Snow tells her another tale, about a small town mayor and her sheriff, the son they share, their clashing tempers and their joined magic, the roles destiny had molded for them in iron and blood and the fates they were both trying to make their own.

_The Evil Queen_

_The Savior_

_Another Curse_

_Fairy dust_

_Soul mates_

Elsa listens and marvels, marvels once more at the strength of the woman sitting across from her who has come to accept so easily that there is so much more to the relationship between her former step-mother and her own daughter than most everyone suspects, least of all their own family, their own son. Her eyes are drawn back to the sleeping form of mother and son, huddled together under a heap of blankets.

Henry is still clinging tightly to his mother's shirt, his fear thick and so palpable that not even Emma's immediate closeness seems able to ease it, not even the hand cradling his neck close to her chest. Emma's other arm is flung far out and across her son's body, her hand splayed out flat against the empty mattress as though, in sleep, she is reaching for something that she dares not reach for when awake.

The next morning, during breakfast, Henry announces his plan to go over to _mom's_ \- to Regina's - and Elsa watches as Snow's eyes glaze over for an instant as Emma wraps her arm around her son's shoulder and leans into him, whispering words that are only between him and her, words that speak of the love shared between mother and son.

But the words speak of Regina too, Elsa can see it in their eyes and read it on their smiles, and even though those words are silent, Elsa can hear them nevertheless because Elsa knows them by heart.

_I'm proud of you._

_I love you._

_We're family._

 

FIN


End file.
